priceaction1 journal

once again thanks to forexcube.




A lot of people seem to be unaware of the fact that they are trading with a mindset that is inhibiting them from making money in the markets. Instead, they think that if they just find the right indicator or system they will magically start printing money from their computer. Trading success is the end result of developing the proper trading habits, and habits are the end result of having the proper trading psychology. Today’s lesson is going to give you the insight you need to develop a profitable trading mindset, so read this lesson carefully and don’t dismiss any of it, because I promise you that the reason you are struggling in the markets now is because your mindset is working against you instead of for you.

Step 1: Have realistic expectations
The first thing you need to do to develop the proper Forex trading mindset is have realistic expectations about trading. What I mean is this; don’t think you’re going to quit your job and start making a million dollars a year after 2 months of trading live with your $5,000 account. That’s not how it works, and the sooner you ground your expectations in reality, the sooner you will begin to make money consistently. You need to accept that you cannot over-trade and over-leverage your way to trading success, if you do those two things you might make some quick money temporarily, but you will soon lose it all and more. Accept the reality of how much money you have in your trading account and how much of that you are willing to lose per trade. Here are some other points to consider:

• Only trade with disposable ‘risk’ capital – Disposable capital is money you don’t need for any life expenses, including retirement or other long-term things. If you don’t have any disposable or risk capital, then keep demo trading until you do, or stop trading all together, but whatever you do, do not trade with money you are going to become emotional about losing. Always assume you could lose whatever money you have in your account or in a trade…if you’re truly OK with that, then your good to go, just make sure you don’t lie to yourself…REALLY BE OK WITH IT. Trading with ‘scared’ money (money you can’t afford to lose) will lead to severe emotional pressure and cause ongoing losses.

• Make sure you can still sleep at night !– This is related to the above point about disposable capital. But the difference is that you need to ask yourself before EVERY trade you take if you are 100% neutral or OK with potentially losing the money you are about to risk. If you can’t sleep at night because you’re thinking about your trade, you’ve risked too much. No one can tell you how much to risk per trade, it depends on what you’re personally comfortable with. If you trade 4 times a month you can obviously risk a little more per trade than someone who trades 30 times a month…it’s relative to your trade frequency, your skills as a trader, and your personal risk tolerance.

• Understand each trade is independent of the previous one – This point is important because I know that many traders are way too influenced by their previous trade. The fact of the matter is that your last trade has absolutely ZERO to do with your next trade. You need to avoid becoming euphoric or over-confident after a winning trade or revengeful after a losing trade. The fact of the matter is that every time you trade it should just be seen as another execution of your trading edge; if you just had 3 consecutive winners you need to avoid risking more than usual on your next trade just because you are feeling very confident, and you need to avoid jumping back into the market right away after a losing trade just to try and “make back” what you lost. When you do these things you are operating 100% on emotion rather than logic and objectivity.

• Don’t get attached to your trades – If you follow the 3 points we just discussed you should have little chance of becoming too attached to your trades. Don’t take any trade personally, just because you lose on a few trades in a row doesn’t mean you suck at trading, likewise if you win on 3 trades in a row it doesn’t mean you are a trading “God” who is immune to losing. If you don’t risk too much per trade and you aren’t trading with money you need for other things in your life, you probably won’t get too attached to your trades.

Step 2: Understand the power of patience
I think one of the biggest realizations that allowed me to turn the corner in my own trading was that I didn’t have to trade a lot to make a decent monthly return. Think about it, most people consider a 6% annual return very good for a savings account, and if you average 12% a year on your retirement fund you are pretty happy. So why is it that most traders expect to make 100% a month or some other unrealistic return? What’s wrong with making 5 or 10% a month? That’s still exceptional over the course of one year. Whilst I can’t imply you will make a certain percentage per month, if you just understand that slower and more consistent gains are the way to long-term success in the markets, you will be far better off at the end of each trading year. Here are some other points to consider about patience:

• Learn to trade on the daily charts first – By learning to trade on the daily chart time frames first, you will naturally take a bigger-picture approach to the markets and you’ll avoid most of the temptation to over-trade that the lower time frames induce. Beginning traders especially need to slow down and learn to trade off the daily charts first. Daily charts provide the most relevant and practical view of the market. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TRADE EVERYDAY to make a solid return each month.

• Quality over quantity – I consider myself a “sniper” of the market; I wait and I wait and I wait, sometimes for days or even 1 week without trading, then when I see a price action setup that triggers my “this one is a no-brainer” alarm…I pull the trigger with ZERO emotion. I am always fully prepared to lose the money I have risked on any one trade because I do not trade unless I am 100% confident that my price action trading edge is present.

• User your ‘bullets’ wisely – To really hammer-home the power of patience in developing the proper trading mindset, you need to understand that being patient will work to instill positive trading habits within you. Patience reinforces positive trading habits, whereas emotional trading reinforces negative ones. Once you begin to trade patiently you will see how using your “bullets” wisely works…you only need a few good trades a month to make a respectable return in the markets, after you achieve this via patience, you will learn to enjoy NOT being in the markets…because it’s then that you are “hunting your prey”. This in contrast to the frazzled and frustrated trader who is staying up all night staring at the charts like a trading zombie who just will not accept that they need to trade less often.

Step 3: Be organized in your approach to the markets

http://cdn1.ltttmstatic.com/wp-conte...s/mindset1.jpg

You NEED to have a business trading plan, a trading journal, and you need to plan out most of your actions in the market before you enter. The more you plan before you enter the higher-probability you will have of making money long-term. You are ALWAYS going to interpret the market more accurately whilst you’re not in a trade…so pre-planning everything increases your odds of making money since you will be working more on logic than emotion.

• Have a trading plan – I know it can be boring, I know you might think you don’t “need” to make one, but if you don’t make a trading plan and actually use it and tweak it as you learn, you will start trading on an unorganized and probably emotional path. A trading plan doesn’t have to be a very dry and boring document; you can get creative with it. You’re trading plan could be that you write your own weekly commentary before each week begins, plan out what you will do and look for in the upcoming week…just make sure you have a “plan of attack” before you enter any trade.

• Keep a professional trading journal – You need a track record, you need to record your trades, you need to do this in aforex trading journal. This is a critical component to forging the proper Forex trading mindset because it gives you a tangible document that you can look at and instantly get raw feedback on your trading performance. Once you start keeping a journal of your trades it will become a habit, and you will not want to see emotional results staring back at you in your trade journal. Eventually, you will look at your trading journal as something of a work of art that proves your ability to trade with discipline as well as your ability to follow your trading plan. This is something any serious investor will want to see if you plan on trading other people’s money.

• Think BEFORE you ‘shoot’, not after – All of the planning and preemption that I just discussed is analogous to thinking before you shoot. A gun is a very powerful weapon, we all know that we need to think before we shoot one, even if we are just hunting or shooting at a gun range. Likewise, the markets can be very powerful “weapons” in regards to making or losing you money. So, you want to do as much thinking before you enter a trade as you can, because after you enter you are going to naturally be more emotional and you don’t want to put yourself in a position of constantly entering regrettable trades. If you plan your actions before you enter, you should not regret your trades, even when you have losing trades. I never regret any trade I take because I don’t trade unless my edge is present and I’m always comfortable with the amount of money I have risked on any one trade.

Step 4: Have no doubt about what your trading edge is
Finally, don’t start trading with real money if you aren’t really sure how to trade your edge. You are obviously not going to develop the proper trading mindset if you jump into trading a live account without being 100% confident in what you’re looking for. Whatever your edge is, make sure you’ve found success trading it on a demo account for at least 3 months or more before you go live. Don’t just “dive in head first” without being totally comfortable in your approach…this is what most traders do and most of them lose money too.

• Have 100% confidence in your edge – I have 100% confidence in my price action trading strategies…that’s not to say that I am foolish enough to believe EVERY trade will win, but I am totally confident that every time I trade my edge is truly present. I don’t compromise my trading edge by taking setups that look they are “almost” good enough…I simply don’t trade in that case. I only take price action setups that I feel in my gut are high-probability valid representations of my edge. Therefore, I am never fearful or worried about any trade I enter, even if it ends up losing.

• Don’t gamble – There are skilled traders, and then there are people who gamble in the markets. If you take a calm and calculated approach to your trading and wait patiently for your trading edge to appear, like a sniper, then you are a skilled trader. If you just “run and gun” and veer off course from your trading plan, you are a gambler. So, are you a Forex trader or a gambler?

• Price action trading helps develop the proper trading mindset – My trading edge is price action, and I fully believe that the simplicity of price action trading helped me develop and maintain the proper Forex trading mindset. We don’t need tons of messy indicators on our charts and we don’t need Forex trading robots or other expensive software. All we need is the raw price action of the market and our magnificent human minds to interpret it; it’s up to us to harness this power.
The price action of the market gives us a map to follow, and a pretty obvious one at that, if we can ignore the emotional temptations that arise in our minds we will have no problem profiting off of this price action map. I trust today’s lesson has provided you with some insight into how you can develop the proper mindset and ignore the emotions and break the habits that destroy your trading success

Thanks for the nuggets of gold!

life of a trader.

with thanks to sive Morten. from forex peace forex peace army. one of best resource for Forex trading.


eur/usd daily view. it is sive view NOT mine.

EUR Daily Video is here: http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-...14-2014-a.html

Daily
Here, on daily chart I’ve drawn many possible scenarios and picture looks frustrating at first glance. Let’s discuss it and try to come to some single trading plan. Let’s start from upward butterfly. Its invalidation point stands at 1.3575 low. If market will move below it – this butterfly will fail. At my taste, technical picture promises not many chances on upward continuation. Previously we’ve mentioned failure upward breakout on weekly chart and standing below MPP. Another thought here is based on upward AB=CD pattern with flat CD leg. AB is our long hammer candle. By recent upward action to 1.3750 price has reached 100% extension of this pattern. Its shape does not promise upward continuation. Right now market already has reached ultimate retracement level – 5/8 from whole AB=CD move. If this pattern is still valid price should hold above this level. But recent action has formed bearish stop grabber that suggests erasing of this butterfly pattern. Besides, recent action looks not very encouraging for upward continuation.
Now what about downward butterfly… In fact butterfly is an ultimate pattern and it is not necessary that market will reach its final ultimate target. We could see at least 2 other targets. First is a smallest one – just grabber target at MPS1. Second – downward AB=CD that we will discuss on 4-hour chart.
So what the sequence of our steps on daily chart? First of all we will keep an eye on 1.3575 and 1.3650 levels. Because they are mutually excluding points. Depending on which one market will take out will give us hint on further direction. Second step is searching possibility for taking position with dominating direction.

4-hour
Here trend is bearish. This chart just shows another possible pattern that has a bit closer target than daily butterfly – AB=CD right at 1.3525. On previous week EUR was not able to move above WPP and on coming week market will open right around it. If we take a look at recent action then we will see that downward action looks stronger. First is solid thrust down, attempt of EUR to accelerate with BC retracement was fastly destroyed and vanished by downaward acceleration. From fundamental point of view – we will have to keep an eye on Retail sales and PPI data that should be released on coming week.

one of best from fti.

Story #4
A lesson in habit training & stupidity.
The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp
by Steve Washam based on a telling by George Gordon

Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions, especially his traps--and drove south.

Several weeks later he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
It was a Saturday morning--a lazy day--when he walked into the general store.
Sitting around the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town's local citizens.

The traveler spoke, "Gentlemen, could you direct me to the Okefenokee Swamp?"
Some of the old-timers looked at him like he was crazy.
"You must be a stranger in these parts," they said.
"I am. I'm from North Dakota," said the stranger.

"In the Okefenokee Swamp are thousands of wild hogs," one old man explained.
"A man who goes into the swamp by himself asks to die!"
He lifted up his leg. "I lost half my leg here, to the pigs of the swamp."
Another old fellow said, "Look at the cuts on me; look at my arm bit off!"

"Those pigs have been free since the Revolution, eating snakes and rooting out roots
and fending for themselves for over a hundred years.
They're wild and they're dangerous.
You can't trap them. No man dare go into the swamp by himself."
Every man nodded his head in agreement.

The old trapper said,
"Thank you so much for the warning. Now could you direct me to the swamp?"
They said, "Well, yeah, it's due south--straight down the road."
But they begged the stranger not to go, because they knew he'd meet a terrible fate.
He said, "Sell me ten sacks of corn, and help me load them into the wagon."
And they did.

Then the old trapper bid them farewell and drove on down the road.
The townsfolk thought they'd never see him again.
Two weeks later the man came back.
He pulled up to the general store, got down off the wagon, walked in and bought ten more sacks of corn.
After loading it up he went back down the road toward the swamp.

Two weeks later he returned and, again, bought ten sacks of corn.
This went on for a month. And then two months, and three.
Every week or two the old trapper would come into town on a Saturday morning,
load up ten sacks of corn and drive off south into the swamp.

The stranger soon became a legend in the little village and the subject of much speculation.
People wondered what kind of devil had possessed this man,
that he could go into the Okefenokee by himself and not be consumed by the wild and free hogs.



One morning the man came into town as usual.
Everyone thought he wanted more corn.
He got off the wagon and went into the store where the usual group of men were gathered around the stove.
He took off his gloves.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I need to hire about ten or fifteen wagons.
I need twenty or thirty men.
I have six thousand hogs out in the swamp, penned up, and they're all hungry.
I've got to get them to market right away."

"You've got WHAT in the swamp?" asked the storekeeper, incredulously.
"I have six thousand hogs penned up. They haven't eaten for two or three days,
and they'll starve if I don't get back there to feed and take care of them."
One of the old-timers said,
"You mean you've captured the wild hogs of the Okefenokee?"
"That's right."

"How did you do that? What did you do?" the men urged, breathlessly.
One of them exclaimed, "But I lost my arm!"
"I lost my brother!" cried another.
"I lost my leg to those wild boars!" chimed a third.

The trapper said, "Well, the first week I went in there they were wild allright.
They hid in the undergrowth and wouldn't come out.
I dared not get off the wagon. So I spread corn along behind the wagon.
Every day I'd spread a sack of corn.

"The old pigs would have nothing to do with it.
But the younger pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn
than it was to root out roots and catch snakes.
So the very young began to eat the corn first.

"I did this every day.
Pretty soon, even the old pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn,
after all, they were all free; they were not penned up.
They could run off in any direction they wanted at any time.

"The next thing was to get them used to eating in the same place all the time.
So, I selected a clearing, and I started putting the corn in the clearing.
"At first they wouldn't come to the clearing. It was too far.
It was too open. It was a nuisance to them.
"But the very young decided that it was easier to take the corn in the clearing
than it was to root out roots and catch their own snakes.
And not long thereafter, the older pigs also decided that it was easier to come to the clearing every day.

"And so the pigs learned to come to the clearing every day to get their free corn.
They could still subsidize their diet with roots and snakes and whatever else they wanted.
After all, they were all free. They could run in any direction at any time. There were no bounds upon them.

"The next step was to get them used to fence posts. So I put fence posts all the way around the clearing.
I put them in the underbrush so that they wouldn't get suspicious or upset, after all,
they were just sticks sticking up out of the ground, like the trees and the brush.
The corn was there every day. It was easy to walk in between the posts, get the corn, and walk back out.

"This went on for a week or two.
Shortly they became very used to walking into the clearing, getting the free corn,
and walking back out through the fence posts.

"The next step was to put one rail down at the bottom.
I also left a few openings, so that the older,
fatter pigs could walk through the openings and the younger pigs could easily jump over just one rail,
after all, it was no real threat to their freedom or independence--
they could always jump over the rail and flee in any direction at any time.

"Now I decided that I wouldn't feed them every day. I began to feed them every other day.
On the days I didn't feed them, the pigs still gathered in the clearing.
They squealed, and they grunted, and they begged and pleaded with me to feed them--
but I only fed them every other day.
Then I put a second rail around the posts.

"Now the pigs became more and more desperate for food.
Because now they were no longer used to going out and digging their own roots and finding their own food,
they now needed me. They needed my corn every other day."

"So I trained them that I would feed them every day if they came in through a gate and
I put up a third rail around the fence.

"But it was still no great threat to their freedom, because there were several gates
and they could run in and out at will.

"Finally I put up the fourth rail.
Then I closed all the gates but one, and I fed them very, very well."
"Yesterday I closed the last gate and today I need you to help me take these pigs to market."

The price of free corn.
The parable of the pigs has a serious moral lesson.
Markets have the skills as that trapper.
Remember your MO, and purpose.
If you are scalping, beware the gates.
If you are trading, then do not run too far off your norm.
If you cannot hold on to your intended protocol and MO, then you will be caged by the market , sometime.
If you ever get into that position as a trader , you will have to fight tooth and nail, just to get out of it.

corn feeding areas. I called it killing areas, so this is the background of that name.

Awesome view on the market. Not buy and sell levels, but feeding areas, haha.

that is just example of what I means "n" factors!!!!!!!!!

also from grate fti!!! see post no 4.

"Feel Pulse"
Those ladies with heavy tops or bottoms move bouncy & slowly
Long legged ladys are very flirtatious and wild.
Those that have long shadows are normally tall and very volatile.
Those introverts that coil up normally spring surprises.
Those that spread themselves out normally have no substance..........better stop the dealers lingo!
Try study chart compound patterns.

keep eye on cable for surprise!!!!!!!!!!1 I am looking above 1.7160 and bellow 1.7075.

Great charts.I promise i will read about ehats going on here a bit later .Subscribed .

inter bank quotes and charts.
http://www.forex-markets.com/charts.htm

aud/usd 1/10 @ 0.93985. protection above 0.941** area.

stop loss move to BE.

no damage stop out.

short in cable and euro. with protection.

protection operate in cable

I was at my class room fti thread!!!!! cable again short@ 1.7137 and 1.7123 with zero loss protection i.e will be out at BE.
I suppose this was the time to short euro so I did it @1.3636 and add 1.3627. all are micro position. if cable drop bellow 1.7190 and euro 1.3580 than some reasonable size will be added. other wise safe gun powder.

my cable shorts. with zero loss protection.

Beware the closing of the gates at the feeding area